Patrick Rothfuss’s delightly (and demented) NOT A BOOK FOR CHILDREN The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle is nestled comfortably at our printer, likely appalling any who have a look at the pdf.

We’ve received an unprecedented influx of orders in the past week for Princess, and, at Pat’s request, increased the print run of the trade hardcover. That said, we have not yet received orders from our large retail and wholesale accounts, and it’s not impossible if the current order rate holds that we will not be able to fill any of their orders with first editions. We haven’t discussed a second printing with Pat or his agent, so to be absolutely certain you receive a copy, your best bet at this time is to order direct from us.

It’s unlikely we won’t have copies for at least some orders for our large accounts, but we don’t want our regular customers, or Pat’s legion of fans, to be caught unaware if the demand far exceeds the first printing.

Our shippers are currently sending out copies of the limited edition of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novel, Grave Peril. As this is a title we don’t make available to our wholesalers or large online retailers, virtually all of the orders are to individuals, which makes shipping go a bit more slowly. We’ll post another update once all of the copies have been sent out.

The Limited Edition of Dan Simmons’s Black Hills is taking a little longer than initially planned, but is progressing steadily toward publication. We’re inputting the final corrections to our edition, while Dan is busy with the signature sheets.

In addition, here’s a first look at the dust jacket art. The raven is essential to the penultimate scene of the book, and we jumped at Ken Rosenthal’s image when Dan suggested it. We might niggle a bit with the dj design before sending the book to the printer, but all of the elements should come together in the next few weeks.

Fritz Leiber’s Strange Wonders, a gathering of previously uncollected, unpublished, and obscure material, has grown quite a bit. What we thought would be a 200 page collection is actually 280 pages in the trade edition. The limited edition, signed by editor Benjamin Szumskyj, contains numerous additional fragments, story beginnings, and vignettes, and is more than 60 pages longer than the trade hardcover. There are only 150 copies of the limited edition with the extra material, so you might want to get in your order early.

Given how well we’ve done with PS Publishing’s The Very Best of Gene Wolfe and The Sorcerer’s House (with copies of the latter en route to our warehouse, and still available), we decided to contact our friends and Centipede Press about carrying their very limited editions of Wolfe’s masterwork, The Book of the New Sun.

Update: Our supply of the Centipede Press Limited Editions is Sold Out.

The Limited Editions of both The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator are massively oversized, illustrated volumes with print runs of only one hundred copies each.

We’re only going to be able to get twelve copies of each volume for sale, and will be taking orders until the end of the day, April 30, 2010, or while supplies last. If these editions are of interest, we suggest getting in an early order. At $225 per volume, they are priced for the serious collector, but Gene Wolfe’s books have proven very strong sellers for us.

As usual, US Shipping is FREE on Centipede Press titles.

All copies (individual, retail, and wholesale) for Ray Bradbury’s major new collection, A Pleasure to Burn, as well as Elizabeth Bear’s glittering sold out novella, Bone and Jewel Creatures, should be en route to customers by the end of the day April 27.

After that, the shippers at our warehouse will be moving on to Jim Butcher’s Grave Peril, while our other shipper — who works out of the SubPress offices proper — will be working on the limited edition to Thomas Ligotti’s Songs of a Dead Dreamer next week.

We’re finally digging out of the huge shipping hole we managed to dig for ourselves. Thanks to everyone for their patience in waiting for books to reach the top of the shipping queue.

We’ve been busy again, adding books to our schedule, and features to the online magazine:

We’ve just reached agreement to publish the signed limited edition of China Mieville’s new novel, Kraken, a romp unlike anything he’s ever written, and a book sure to please fans of his Bas Lag novels (though with a different setting). Vincent Chong, who produced the dj for China’s The City & the City (pictured here) has been sent the manuscript to produce the dust jacket art. We’ll begin designing and layout for the book as soon as we have final files in hand.

Glen Cook has also joined the SubPress book line with an as-yet-untitled short story collection that will gather uncollected stories from throughout his illustrious career. We’ve promised Glen a heavily illustrated volume.

Roughly a week ago we received the designed version of The Best of Larry Niven, which clocked in at nearly 620 pages, when we were expecting something closer to 500, making it an even bigger bargain for readers than we originally anticipated. The book’s currently being proofread, and is right on schedule for publication this fall.

Switching gears, at Subterranean Online, Kelley Armstrong has just turned in her first column, “Notes from the Otherworld”, while one of our favorite cult writers, William Browning Spencer recently sent us “The Unorthodox Dr. Draper”, a most unusual novelette. Look for these in an issue down the line a bit.

The Spring 2010 Issue of Subterranean is off to a later start than usual. My apologies to all, but we’ve been so wrapped up in the book line, which is off to the best start of a year ever, that I didn’t have time to format the stories for this issue until this past week.

Our thanks for the Spring Issue go out to guest editor Jonathan Strahan, who has once again made the final Hugo ballot for Best Editor. We think you’ll see ample evidence why in the coming months as we publish stories by Tom Holt, Daryl Gregory, and Peter S. Beagle, among others.

The first tale, “The Naturalist“, is by Maureen F. McHugh, whose first collection, Mothers and Other Monsters came out from the always excellent Small Beer Press a few years ago. Enjoy.

Robert McCammon has just turned in a brand-new 36,000 word novella, “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs” about a further WWII adventure of Michael Gallatin that will be included in The Wolf’s Hour, pushing the book to just shy of 700 pages. We expect the inclusion of this major piece of new fiction will drive sales of this limited edition, making it a must have for every serious McCammon fan.

To accommodate the expected demand for The Wolf’s Hour — this novella was a last minute addition, long after the book was announced — with Mr. McCammon’s permission we’ve decided to increase the print run to 750 copies, to cover the increased printing costs, to compensate the author for a significant new piece of fiction, and to give his many fans a chance at this important collectible edition.

Joe Hill, fresh off the exhausing tour for his dark enthralling new novel Horns (Amazon/BN/Powells) just lobbed a large stack of signature pages onto the stoop at SubPress’s offices.

Next week we’ll be giving Locke & Key: Head Games one final pass to make sure the script and graphic novel are both as we want them, and then it’s off to the printer for this oversize volume. Copies of the Signed Limited Edition are still available for preorder, so Hill devotees take note.